New picture!

The above is the latest one of me, Debora John, and Aneri. I love it, and them! I think that shows in the picture!

Snapshots from a week in Karanse

Just thought I'd do little blurbs from this week rather than long paragraphs about one topic!

Did I ever mention that on the weeks that we go to schools we leave Joshua at 5:30 in the morning?! That's so we can drop off Janet and Corinne at St. Dorcas, stop by Angaza and see where we're staying THIS time (!), then be at school in Karanse as close to 7:30 as possible, but at least by devotions at 8.

This time we stayed at the small guest house at Angaza, just Joelle and me, with a fridge (but not the one has been following us from house to house!), but no "kettle." We both drink a hot drink in the mornings, me tea and Joelle coffee, but this time we got our serving girls to bring us a thermos of hot water on the 2 nights they brought our soup and bread for dinner. That gave us hot drinks 2 mornings, at least. The other 2 nights, we make soup in a crock pot, so it's waiting on us when we get home from school.

My sponsored child, Debora, has 2 best friends named Grace and Salome, who are good friends of mine, too. They have "tuition" (tutoring) after school a couple of times a week, so they finish up the same time my student teachers and I do. They have recently started asking me for rides in my car, "to sokoni" which is the shops at the beginning of town. The first time I took them, I'm not sure they had ever been in a car before, as they didn't know how to get in, close the door, etc. I rolled down the windows so their friends and family and neighbors could see them, and they squealed all through the town. We started teling people we were going to America! One day Grace came and told me her mother said she could go to America in December! Not sure who she's going with, but it won't be in my car!!

Thursday was a nat'l holiday for everyone except Joshua students! At all 3 of our schools, we went to classes, but we all tried to do it a way that wouldn't completely demoralize them. At Karanse, Godfrey had arranged for us to still have morning tea and chapati, which we weren't expecting, so that was a real treat. I had also brought in our left-over bread and peanut butter for a morning snack, so that was a fun extra. But the best part was that we had arranged to take our teachers out for lunch! We took their orders on Wednesday, Abraham (one of the students who lives and works in Karanse) took our order to the "restaurant," and we went on Thursday at lunchtime. Of course, it wasn't ready, but we enjoyed the time with our students. They were so appreciative as this whole cooking thing is still very new to them, and they hardly ever have their favorite foods: ugali and meat, so that's what they ordered, along with sodas, so it was a big treat!

Back at En Gedi, I had a package waiting on me, so that was fun to come home to, and a family with a small pool at their house is gone for the week, so I jumped in it yesterday afternoon since it was so warm. Today, after church, several of us went to the hotel pool, had lunch, and I got some more exercise. (Then, of course, we went out for ice cream sundaes, so I may have exercised in vain, but the water sure felt good!)

This week there will be meetings as we go over curriculum, reviewing what we did last week, and getting ready for next week. I'll also be in preschool several mornings. One very sad note about the preschool. One of the little girls from Celina's class died last weekend, and the funeral was last Monday. She had a brain tumor and when they diagnosed it they told the family she had 6 weeks to 6 months to live. It turned out to be less than that, as that was just a couple of weeks ago. She was only 4 years old. I heard that her classmates went, and I haven't seen them or their teacher yet, so that will be a sad thing to go back to. Her name was Ana, and her dad is one of our security guys. We've all just been praying for her, and now will be praying for her family and loved ones. That's never easy to understand or explain, so I'll probably do a lot of hugging and praying.

I'm still trying to upload some pictures from mentoring or me with Debora and Aneri, so I hope that happens this week, too!

There's a What in our kitchen?!

Along the lines of the lizard in the computer, but worse! Last weekend, after all of us mentors being gone for the week, we noticed a small hole in our kitchen window screen. Just assumed a knife in the dish drainer had cut it or something. We were mostly worried about mosquitoes getting in, but just closed the glass over the hole. The next day, to our surprise, there was another hole! Vicky was out on the deck outside the window, and said, "That's been bitten; there are little pieces of screen out here." We were definitely thinking "mouse" by then. The next morning, a bite of avocado was missing from one on the counter! By then, Joanna, downstairs, had noticed a hole in one of her screens, so she went and got poison for us to share (it's called "raticide" here!). We put out some peanut butter and poison in a couple of places, and the next morning, some had obviously been eaten, and Joelle heard it in the back of one of our cabinets. She and Corinne banged on the cabinet hoping to scare it into the open, but nothing happend. Another night, more peanut butter and poison, and we're up to about Friday. Friday morning, an entire banana was missing! That really creeped us out, beacause now it seemed we had this "super rat" who was impervious to poison and had dragged off a whole banana! We called one of the base workers to come over, and he proceeded to knock holes in baseboards to find it. He finally did run out of one cabinet (I jumped up on the kitchen counter at that point and was no help at all!) and ran under a sofa. Joelle, Corinne, and Philemon chased him with dish towels (Joelle), a hammer (Philemon), and screams (Corinne), as he ran from one hiding place to another. He found a really good one under the stove or in back of a cabinet because we lost him at that point. However, along the way, we found where he'd been spending all that week - he had stashes of food under a sofa, in the under stove drawer (which we never use), and in the back of a cabinet, behind the wall. There was talk of more poison, the garage cat, etc. Finally, a trap was procured and set last night with a piece of banana (apparently his favorite food!), and this morning he was caught in it and dead! He honestly didn't look as big as when he was alive and running around our kitchen, but we're still very relieved that he's gone! (And hoping he was alone!!)

Back to Karanse on Monday, and looking forward to it. Can't wait to find out who's sharing the guesthouse with us this week! That's always a new adventure!

Mentoring Week 3

This was a first - I was on my own this week without Joelle. Our fellow mentor Sarah has been in Magugu (a couple of hours' bus ride southwest from Arusha), mostly on her own as we've been mentoring, as her co-mentor doesn't arrive till December. In the meantime Allan Dow has been helping out, but he is so busy with the school that his time for mentoring hasn't been regular or predictable. The other 4 of us felt so badly for Sarah that a plan was devised: either Joelle or Corinne (who is with Janet at St. Dorcas) will go to Magugu with Sarah every other week, leaving either Janet or me on our own. Janet and I were fine with that plan, so this past week Joelle went, and I was in Karanse with the student-teachers. It really went so well - I know there were lots of prayers that went up on my behalf! The students were co-operative, congenial (as they always are), and just so involved in our lessons. The Karanse teachers were all soliticious about my being there, but they knew I was "home," so they weren't worried about me!

Of course, there had to be an adventure at Angaza! I arrived there first thing Monday morning, around 7:30, as I usually do. They "escorted" me to the larger, 3 bedroom guest house and banged on the door till a young lady came and unlocked it. We had obviously awakened her, as she came to the door wrapped in a kanga! She said, "Hello, Miriam." I thought she must be one of the Angaza workers, but I couldn't figure out why she was staying in the guest house. After she let me in to drop off my stuff, I heard her go in her bedroom and I heard a man's voice in there, too! All of the workers at Anagaza that are young girls are single, so this was a little alarming. I worried all day about what to do about this situation. However, when I got back, she came out, all dressed, with make-up on, and I realized she was the Joshua preschool teacher, Miriam, no less, who had just gotten married last Saturday! She and her husband were sharing the guesthouse with me on their honeymoon! We were the only peopple there, one bathroom; can you picture the awkwardness?! However, she was far more gracious than I would have been, telling me how glad she was to see me again!

On Thursday, Lynda, Vicky, and Nico all came out for a visit so Vicky could take pictures. She took some really nice ones of both me and the students and me and Aneri and Debora John. When I get those from her I'll post them on here.

Last night, back at Joshua we had a fun outdoor movie night. Barbequing, then a showing of Avatar, which I hadn't seen, as we all curled up in our Maasai blankets under the African stars! My friend Jenny had come, as we also had a showing of Vicky's favorites of all the 1000's of photos she's taken, and she and Jenny had hit it off on a number of occasions. Jenny spent the night, and the three of us stayed up late laughing and talking. Vicky leaves this week for Zanzibar, then leaves next week for home. I will miss her, but she's already planning her return trip here with her daughters!

This morning, as part of my parents' birthday present to me, I went and had a pedicure! Long overdue, but just wonderful! It was at a lovely upscale complex for safari-goers and wealthy residents, and Vicky and Sarah came along. Vicky had her pre-Zanzibar pedicure, and Sarah found a quiet place to read, then we all had lunch together. A lovely way to ease back into "normal" life.

Big doings tomorrow: my church moves out of the restaurant (Pepe's) that we've been meeting in into our own property for the first time! We're all so excited, and it should be a wonderful worship time. After that, several of us are going to the Impala Hotel pool for the afternoon, which I am really looking forward to! Sorry, but this doesn't sound much like suffering for the Lord in Africa, does it?! Actually, we don't usually feel like we're doing that, as we feel so called to this place and what we do here. It is great to also live somewhat normal lives in the midst of this, so we can keep doing what we love. (Of course the road to the new church is unpaved and shocking, and the pool is COLD, so maybe there are a few drawbacks!)